Authors:
Fleur Goedkoop | University of Groningen | Netherlands
Andreas Flache | University of Groningen
Jacob Dijkstra | University of Groningen
This paper looks at the role of social networks in facilitating or hindering participation in local renewable energy initiatives (LREI). These are bottom-up initiatives within communities to become more sustainable by energy saving campaigns or producing renewable energy via a local cooperative. Typically, in such projects a group of front-runners takes the lead shouldering the start-up costs. Hereafter, more members of the wider community may join. If too few inhabitants of the community participate though, the project might fail after all.
Most existing studies investigating participation in community energy projects focus on individual characteristics of front runners and potential participants, disregarding social network characteristics. Studies that do include social networks often employ small samples or qualitative data. This work suggests that people are often recruited by familiar others who already joined the movement. Importantly, a strong connection to front-runners may provide individuals with trust, next to information and may provide a strong normative obligation to join.
However, not only direct but also indirect connections to front-runners in the broader network within the community might matter. Prospective participants engaged in other (local) organizations, may be more willing to join energy related community projects, since these other activities can bring them indirectly into contact with the ideas of the frontrunners. They might also be seen as a signal of general involvement within a community. By including the broader network in the community we gain more insight into how and when the team of front-runners is influential in attracting community members to engage in the project.
We use quantitative data in seven villages and neighborhoods in the Netherlands (N=465). We analyze the wider community network and individuals' indirect connections with frontrunners through affiliation networks. This way, we can proxy the social networks within these communities without collecting data on complete networks, something which is not feasible within communities of the size we study. From these networks we estimate effects of individual level network variables in an ordinal regression model of intention to participate. In addition, we compare the community network structure of these communities and link them to their progress.
Preliminary results show that in addition to prior investments in renewable energy and income, direct contact and, to a lesser extent, indirect contact via co-memberships seem to matter. However, these results differ between communities; in some communities indirect contact has a positive effect whereas in others it seems to have a negative effect, and in some there is no effect. When it comes to mechanisms, only social norms seem to play a role, indicating that people who know more front-runners feel a higher obligation to act pro-environmentally. Contact does not seem to be important for information sharing since almost all respondents knew about the project, independent of knowing the front-runners. In conclusion, it can cautiously be said that both direct and indirect contacts matter but to what extent and in what way they matter might turn out to be very context specific.